The Tree House Project, Studio City, Calif.

Posted October 31, 2009

The LEED Platinum certified home is sponsored by the Southern California Gas Co. as part of their Advanced Home Case Study Program to identify sustainable products and measures to improve durability, energy and water efficiencies, air quality, and thermal comfort throughout the house. It is also a pilot project for a new equivalency tool between the USGBC's LEED for Homes and Build It Green's GreenPoint rated programs.

The two-story, 2,400-square-foot (223-m2) house has four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, an attached garage and outdoor living room with fireplace. Tree views are provided from almost every room, and the second floor decks offer privacy while further enhancing the connection with the outdoors. The 20-foot- (6-m-) wide house was designed and orientated to maximize passive solar gain, cross ventilation, stack cooling and natural daylighting.

The project features products from more than 60 sponsors, including Custom-BilMetals, who supplied its Titan standing-seam steel roof with a Cool Roof finish. Skylights from VELUX America Inc. provide natural daylighting, and thermal and moisture control in the stairwell and master bathroom,and Solatube International Inc.'s daylighting systems are used in the bedrooms. BioBased Insulation supplied its open- and closed-cell spray-in foam insulation for the roof and walls to provide a tight envelope and high R-value, while DuPont supplied its Tyvek HomeWrap, StuccoWrap and window flashing system.